CINCINNATI, Ohio -- Bengals running back Cedric Benson got teary-eyed after his sensational performance against the Browns, and the Browns defenders certainly will feel like crying today when they watch it all over again on film.

Benson, who also went over 1,000 yards for the second year in a row, dropped 150 on the Browns on 31 carries for a 4.8-yard average Sunday in Cincinnati's 19-17 win. It was the highest individual rushing performance against the Browns this season. Overall, the Browns gave up 188 yards rushing, second-worst of the season to last week's 192 in Buffalo. Benson also froze the defense with a nifty stutter-step to score on an 18-yard run in the second quarter, one that tied it, 7-7.

"This tears me up," said Browns linebacker David Bowens, who was visibly upset. "It looks like we got bullied, and that's not our mentality. This was our worst defensive performance of the season. It was just terrible."

Bowens, a team captain, promised to do whatever he could to help turn things around the same way he did last year down the stretch.

"It's going to start with me as one of the defensive captains, one of these leaders," said Bowens. "I'm going to make sure that everyone's on the same page for these last two games. It's the least I can do for this team."

He said he probably would go into the Browns' facility when the team got home Sunday night to watch film. And on the bus on the way to the airport, he Tweeted: "Got two games left. Promise to give you every piece of my soul."

The Browns received what at first looked like a tremendous gift on the Bengals' first series when receiver Terrell Owens left the game with a torn meniscus and didn't return. In fact, he's out for the season. In the first meeting, Owens caught 10 passes for 222 yards, including a 78-yard touchdown. What's more, receiver Chad Ochocinco was hobbled with a bad ankle.

"We didn't look at it like that at all," said Bowens. "Even when T.O. and Chad are healthy, their mentality is to run the ball."

Instead of crushing the struggling Bengals with the two offensive stars rendered ineffective (Ochocinco caught two passes for 36 yards), the Browns let Benson run all over them from beginning to end. He split up the carnage evenly, rushing for 75 yards in the first half and 75 in the second. And the total wasn't skewed by one large blast -- his long gain was the 18-yard touchdown.

"We try to brand ourselves on stopping the run and being a hard-nosed, tough defense," said Browns linebacker Titus Brown. "We try to mirror our defensive coordinator [Rob Ryan], and he's a tough guy. . . . We try to play like that on defense. Unfortunately, we came up short today."

Did we fail to mention that the lowly Bengals came into the game averaging a paltry 87.8 yards per game for 30th in the league?

"This was definitely out of character for us," said Browns linebacker Chris Gocong. "Everything starts with stopping the run, and that really opens up our defensive playbook. We just never did that, and I feel like we kind of got caught on our heels. They pretty much had the momentum early, and we never stopped them."

It got so bad that coach Eric Mangini -- rather than Ryan -- was making defensive play calls late in the game.

"It probably says we didn't prepare well enough," said Browns defensive tackle Ahtyba Rubin, who led with 10 tackles. "Teams know we're not having good success stopping the run, so they're making conscious efforts to run the ball."

Here's how conscious it was: on one third-quarter possession, it was All Benson, All Drive. He ran eight straight times for 37 yards -- a 4.6-yard average -- to set up a field goal that made it 16-7.

"He's not a Chris Johnson-quick scatback that will rip one off for 60 yards, but if you can give him the ball 30-plus times a game, he's going to wear a defense down," said Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer, referring to the Tennessee Titans running back. "At the end of the game, those guys didn't want any part of him."

The defense -- which came into the game tied for first in the NFL with 19 takeaways since Week 7 -- also failed to produce one in this game, despite the fact that Palmer leads the NFL with five pick-sixes. In addition, the Browns gave up a 53-yard bubble screen to receiver Andre Caldwell that led to a field goal, one that proved to be the winning points.

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